Enigma of an Aunt
by Viwiel Singollo
Summary: There's someone new in the town and she knows who, and what, the Salvatore brothers are while they got no idea who she really is.


**Prompt from Khiela Cadona:**

**Include:** '_you can't be serious_', '_apple_', '_scoff_', '_where did you get that_', and '_like waving a red cloth_'.

The words, excluding _'scoff'_, must stay as they are. The order of them can be changed.

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><p><strong>Answer:<strong>

**Fandoms:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries

**Timelines:** After the seven seasons of BtVS and the beginning of the Vampire Diaries. Most of it takes place during the first season's twelfth episode ("_Unpleasantville_").

**Summary:** There's someone new in the town and she knows who, and what, the Salvatore brothers are while they got no idea who she really is.

**Warnings:** Contains the f-word, some torture and a death of a vampire. If you've seen the 1x12 episode of the Vampire Diaries, you know what I'm talking about.

**Beta:** Khiela Cadona

**Disclaimer:** I have no claim on the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Vampire Diaries, Joss Whedon and L.J. Smith respectively have that covered. The lyrics in the last part are from the Angel's song "My Boyfriend's Back" that was used in the episode.

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><p>—<p>

**Enigma of an Aunt**

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><p><strong>Scene One –<strong>_** It was like waving a red cloth at him**_

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><p>"Damon!" Stefan's demanding call echoed around the old boarding house. "Damon, where are you?" he raised his voice even more to get his brother's attention, where ever he was lurking at the moment. Not that it depended on the place his voice took on the decibel scale whether or not Damon responded.<p>

"You called, brother dearest? Damon's amused voice came from behind him. It was one of those things that got on Stefan's nerves about Damon; he seemed to be constantly amused by something. It was all a game to him.

"I know what you've been up to," he turned to face Damon with a frown marring his face. "You need to stay away from her."

"Away from who?" Damon's expression told of a state of confusion, but Stefan knew better. "I've been a good boy," Damon pouted in an exaggerated manner, "I haven't been anywhere near your dear Elena."

"You know I'm not talking about Elena," Stefan couldn't help the frustrated growl that crept into his voice. "I'm talking about Buffy Summers. Leave her alone."

"Hmm…" Damon tapped his chin, pretending to think about it. "I don't think I will," he told his brother and narrowed his as he stared Stefan straight in the eyes. He started to slowly circle around Stefan who followed him with his eyes. "She's just _delicious_, don't you think?" a standard Damon Salvatore smirk accompanied the rhetorical question he posed with the sole intention to get under Stefan's skin.

Stefan shook his head, "She's Elena's aunt, she's not some toy for you to play with."

"Yeah, yeah…" Damon gave a long suffering sigh, stopping in front of Stefan. "That's what you keep saying; not a toy, stay away, and blah, blah, blah. Now, if that was all you got, I got places to be, things to do, people to snack on," Damon went on, gesturing carelessly with one hand as he headed out.

Stefan stayed silent, watching Damon leave. He knew there was no sense to press the issue. Emphasizing to Damon not to do something was like waving a red cloth at him. He'd do it – out of spite, if nothing else. Stefan just had to try to get Damon back off, for Elena.

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><p><strong>Scene Two – <strong>_**She scoffed, she wasn't a starry-eyed teenager anymore**_

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><p>She was taking a walk, normally she'd call it patrolling, but there really wasn't need for that here in Mystic Falls. There weren't any vampires in the vicinity, if you didn't count the Salvatore brothers and she had a feeling her niece would be less than thrilled if she staked her boyfriend. Damon wasn't exactly a good little puppy like his brother, but she had a couple of reasons for holding off staking him, at least for now. Firstly and most importantly, she was retired from the active duty and was here to visit family, meaning she didn't want to wage a war. Secondly, with all the banter and the semi-evilness, he reminded her of Spike like he had been back when he'd had the chip, and she was feeling sentimental because of it.<p>

Speaking of the devil, there was a ping on her Slaydar, and that ping kept following her. There were three options the way she saw it. The unlikeliest was that Stefan had had a sudden change of heart and was enthralled with her instead of Elena, which would probably cause Elena to cut Buffy out of the family tree. The second option was that it was Damon lurking there. Of course, after that one, there was the unlikely chance that some unknown vamp had wandered to Mystic Falls. If she'd had to bet, she would have taken her chances with number two – the one that had the friendly neighborhood psychopath of a vampire as the option.

She waited for him to come to her, but apparently he was content to stay in the shadows.

"Whoever told you skulking was okay? They were wrong," she directed the light remark to the shadows where the sense of somebody was coming from.

"Huh, wonder that," like she had expected, it was Damon departing from the darkness cast by the trees. "It worked for Stefan," he continued.

Buffy scoffed. "Well, for one, I'm not a starry-eyed seventeen-year-old."

"Mmm… You most certainly are not," he looked at her like she was something good enough to eat — which, considering who and what he was, probably didn't fall that far from the truth.

She decided not to comment on it and just hummed. When she started to walk again, he fell in step with her.

"So, how long are you going to stay?" he broke the silence of the night as they crossed the street. Once they were back on a sidewalk he twisted around so he was walking slightly ahead of her, facing her and leaving his back towards the way they were going. If he hadn't been a supernatural being with enchanted senses and reflexes, she would have been afraid he'd trip and fall.

His hands were stuffed in his pockets and he was staring at her intently, waiting for her answer.

"Honestly?" Damon nodded for her to continue. "I don't know. I was only supposed to visit for a couple of days, but I kind of like it here." It was true what she said, the quiet small town life was nice and relaxing for a change.

It was Damon's turn to hum non-committally as he fell back to his original place at her side.

The rest of the walk to the Gilbert house went in silence. From what she'd gathered from various remarks here and there, it was uncharacteristic of Damon to go so long silent, and she wondered about it. However, it didn't make her so curious that she would have questioned him about it. Besides, they didn't really know each other. Which brought up the question why he had been stalking her. She didn't voice that one either, just filed it away to ponder about on a later occasion.

"I'll see you around," Buffy told him as he walked her up to the door.

"That you can bet on," Damon smirked.

Buffy went to open the door and when she turned again, he was gone.

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><p><strong>Scene Three – <strong>_**Apple**_

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><p>Buffy weaved through the crowd in Mystic Grill and flopped down to the booth, across Elena.<p>

"Hey," she greeted the slouching teenager.

"Hey," Elena echoed with little to no enthusiasm.

"What's got you so blue?" she questioned Elena, placing her arms on the table at the same time and leaning on them so she was closer to Elena.

"It's nothing," Elena shook her head dismissing what ever it was.

"Come on, I was a teenager not that long ago. Plus, I lived through Dawn's teenage years and let me tell you, that wasn't a walk in a park," Buffy grinned, raising her eyebrows meaningfully. She was awarded with a small smile.

"Fine," Elena surrendered with a roll of her eyes. "It's just that – look at them," she indicated with a tilt of her head somewhere across the room. Buffy looked in that direction and saw Jenna and Alaric sitting there. Jenna was munching on an apple and as she watched, some of the apple's juices run down Jenna's chin and Alaric reached over the table to wipe it away.

"See? They're not even dating yet and they're disgustingly sweet and mushy." Elena shook her head, "I guess I'm just a little jealous of how easy it seems to be between them."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. I've felt that way too. Guess that's what you get when you're dating a creature of the night. Although, with me it is not limited to just on the dietarily challenged boyfriends," Buffy sighed.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Elena remarked, her tone depressed. They sat there, both lost in their own thoughts of disastrous dating history.

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><p><strong>Scene Four – <strong>_**Where did you get that?**_

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><p>Jenna was already in her costume when Buffy got back.<p>

"I found it!" she informed Jenna right away when she got inside. She meant her own costume. Jenna had talked her into going to the 50s themed dance Elena's school was having. Problem was Buffy hadn't packed anything that would be appropriate for the occasion when she came, so she had been forced to do some last minute shopping.

"Yay! " Jenna clapped her hands. "Show me," she demanded. She was clearly enthusiastic about this whole dance thing. Buffy was certain it was mostly thanks to a certain new history teacher.

She tossed her keys on the drawer, "Okay, okay… Hold your horses," she told Jenna as she joined her in the living room.

She dug her new dress out of the paper bag that had the store's elegant logo printed on it. It was a beautiful red halter neck dress with white dots and a flaring hem.

"Wow, where did you get that?" Jenna took the dress from her to admire it. "I wasn't sure there would be anything left in the stores this late, let alone something that fits you. The kids have been going crazy over this dance."

"Actually, I had to drive to Covington, that's why I took so long. And even there it was hard to find anything. Luckily, I stumbled upon this cute little boutique and they had this beauty in my size," Buffy watched with a small smile as Jenna did a little swirl with the dress held in front of her.

"That's great," Jenna pause, clearly thinking of something, "You know, I have this wide white belt that I think would be perfect with that dress. It's hanging from my closet door, if you want to try it."

"Sure," Buffy grinned, "I'll go get changed." She grabbed the smaller plastic bag that held the rest of her accessories and bounced upstairs with them.

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><p>"You, Miss Summers, look amazing," Jenna smiled when Buffy came back in the living room after a little while, this time decked in her full costume.<p>

"Why, thank you. You look fetching as well. You're going to knock his socks off, sis," she smirked.

"Who are you talking about?" Jenna played dumb.

"Oh no, you know that doesn't fly with me," she shook her head.

"Fine," Jenna pouted, "but I'm not sure if there's going to be anything between us, so keep it quiet. I don't want to jinx it."

"Your secret is safe with me, cross my heart," she promised through a smile, drawing a cross over her heart. "Before I forget to ask, what's up with Elena? Her greeting was more like a grunt than a word and now she's in her room behind closed doors."

Jenna sighed heavily, the previous enthusiasm visibly draining out of her, "She found out about the adoption."

"Ouch," she grimaced. This wasn't the best time for that particular skeleton, and one could easily deduct her niece hadn't taken it all that well.

"Yeah, tell me about it. I think it's better if you drive me and Jeremy there."

"Sounds good. That gives her some space to breath and sort out her thoughts."

Jenna nodded, "I go collect Jeremy and we can go."

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><p><strong>Scene Five –<strong>_** You can't be serious!**_

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><p>Jenna had left Buffy to her own devices when she'd spotted Alaric, so with nothing better to do Buffy had stuck with Jeremy, helping him to arrange the refreshments.<p>

"Come on, aunt Buffy," Jeremy semi-whined, he was getting tired of having her hover around, moving things from where he had put them to somewhere else where she thought they were better and so on. "I've got this, just go out there and have fun or what ever," he gestured to the dance floor. "Please?" he added, drawing the word out exaggeratedly.

Buffy narrowed her eyes playfully, "Kid, are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Yes!" Jeremy laughed. He noticed someone who might help nearing them, "Damon!" he caught the man's attention. Damon raised an eyebrow in question.

"Hey, man, help me out here? Take my aunt away from me?" Jeremy asked, directing his impressive set of puppy eyes at Damon.

Damon looked at Buffy and smiled, "It would be my pleasure," he replied to Jeremy's plea affirmatively and took Buffy's hand, starting to lead her away.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Buffy asked, slightly miffed for being handed off, even if it was part of light-hearted play.

"Nope," Damon popped the end of the word, looking annoyingly cheerful. "Now, you, my darling, look positively stunning. How come you don't have a date to occupy your time?"

"Thank you," she answered to the compliment handed to her and smoothed out the skirt with a soft curl of her lips. Damon wasn't the first one to compliment her that evening and she thought a large part of it was thanks to the new treasure she had found to add to her wardrobe.

"Coming to here was a last minute's decision. Jenna persuaded me into coming even though I wasn't so thrilled originally. She mentioned something about me being a spoilsport otherwise, and that I should come as moral support if nothing else," she rolled her eyes, expressing her opinion of that, after all, Jenna had abandoned her as soon as they got here. "How about you? How did you end up coming? You don't strike me as one for decade dances," Buffy looked pointedly at his attire. It was a solidly black outfit that consisted of jeans, a leather jacket and what she assumed was a t-shirt underneath it.

"Ah, I'm not, but as Stefan's guardian I got roped into chaperoning this thing." Buffy couldn't help the upwards tugging at the corners of her mouth at his what-can-I-do expression.

"Enough of the boring talk," Damon ended the topic. "My fair lady," he presented her with an elaborate bow, "would you give me the honor of this dance?"

Buffy chuckled at his antics. Figuring there was no harm in it, she went along with it. "It would be my pleasure, my lord," she said and matched his bow with a delicate curtsy.

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><p>"<em>My boyfriend's back and you gonna be in trouble. Hey-la-day-la, my boyfriend's back. You see him you better cut out on the double—"<em>

"You really can't take him anywhere, can you?" Elena asked, amused by the scene Damon and his dance partner presented. She and Stefan were standing on the edge of the dance floor, keeping an eye out for whomever it was threatening Elena.

"Uh– no," there was a hint of a smile on Stefan's face. It was virtually impossible not to be amused by the sight in front of them.

"I can't believe he got aunt Buffy roped into going along with that," Elena laughed.

They had just witnessed the pair go from waltz to grinding against each other, which, by the way, Elena could have lived without seeing, and furthermore to the tango they were now seeing.

"He can be–" there was a slight pause as Stefan thought of a word to best describe his brother, "compelling," he ended the sentence.

They were still smiling at the pair when Elena noticed him; the man in the hoodie, "Stefan, the back corner."

"Get Damon."

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><p>Buffy was on her way to the ladies' room when she heard a scream. She immediately turned to run towards the sound. It was coming from what she knew to be the cafeteria. When she arrived there what she saw made her pause in the doorway for a millisecond; a vampire had Elena cornered, and it wasn't one of the Salvatores either.<p>

"Hey!" she yelled, attracting the vampire's attention. She took an advantage of his momentarily pause. In a flash she was there, stopping him from biting Elena's neck, throwing him across the room in the process. He was on his feet before Elena had time to blink out of her stupor, but Stefan was already there, positioning himself between the attacker and the girls. Apparently Buffy hadn't been the only one to hear the scream. She pulled Elena backwards so she was behind her as well.

"Hey, dickhead," it was Damon calling from the doorway, closing the only escape route. "Nobody wants to kill you. We just want to talk."

Buffy scoffed silently and received looks from both of the Salvatores. She didn't acknowledge them. As far as she was concerned, he had signed his own death warrant when he attacked her niece. He was as good as dead.

As the only human in the room, Elena was the only one who missed it when he jumped to attack them, only to end up on his knees in front of Buffy with her stake in his stomach. She glanced back at Elena to reassure herself her niece was okay. At the quizzical look Elena shot at her, Buffy shrugged, "You need to talk to him?" It was an answer to the unvoiced question why she hadn't aimed for the heart.

"Feel like talking?" Stefan questioned, focused too intensely on the one he perceived to be the biggest threat at the moment to pay much attention to the way Buffy had caught the hostile vampire mid-jump.

"Screw you," the vampire spat out between heaving breaths. It only resulted in Stefan grabbing the stake and twisting it deeper in the vampire's gut.

"Wrong answer," Stefan growled darkly.

A tiny gasp escaped from Elena; in any other company it could have gone unnoticed. The ruthlessness Stefan was showing was new to her, she hadn't expected it. Noticing her distress Buffy placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to both comfort and distract her from what was happening. Elena gave her a thankful look.

"Why are you doing this?" Stefan demanded to know.

"Because it's fun," Buffy happened to glance at Damon just then and saw something between amusement and distaste flicker on his face.

The answer earned the vampire another cruel twist of the stake and another question, "What do you want with Elena?"

"She looks like Katherine."

The brothers exchanged looks as did Buffy and Elena behind them.

"You knew Katherine?" Damon spoke up for the first time since the beginning of the interrogation.

"Aww… You thought you were the only ones," the unknown vampire's voice was filled with mock pity. "You don't even remember me."

Damon bent down to look him in the eyes, "Tell me how to get in the tomb," he demanded, "Hmm?" he peered at the vampire.

"No." Stefan reached down and at pushed the stake at the negative answer. It was visibly wearing the vampire down. He sounded more pained and his breathing was growing more labored.

"The grimoire," he gasped.

"Well, where is it?" Damon asked. His voice was harsh – far from its usual seductive purr.

Growing impatient with the lack of an answer, Stefan stepped forward yet again and lodged the stake deeper, holding the pressure there longer than before. Elena had to turn away; she clearly couldn't look at it any more. Buffy pulled her into a hug, stroking her back in a soothing way, "It's okay. Everything will be okay, she whispered.

"Check the journal. The journal. Use Jonathan's journal. Jonathan Gilbert's," the vampire was now desperately gasping for air, his body protesting against the abuse projected on it.

"Who else is working with you?" Stefan asked, now much calmer when they had something to start with, "Who else is there?"

"No. You gonna have to kill me," the vampire's answer was resolute.

Buffy had been distracted, but now she noticed something, "Guys? We got company," she met their gazes, "a vamp nearby." She turned her head and closed her eyes briefly, listening to the direction of the door, "There's someone else coming as well."

No-one stopped to question how she knew it; there was no time for that. Stefan and Damon looked at each other. Damon rolled his eyes and made a gesture for Stefan to have at it. Without a further ado Stefan ripped the stake out and punched it into the vampire's chest, piercing his heart.

For a short moment Elena's hands clenched tighter around Buffy. The vampire died – rather anticlimactically in Buffy's opinion. Looking at the corpse she thought how much easier the breed of vampires she hunted was. With them, there was no mess left behind to clean up if you didn't count the small pile of dust there were left of them afterwards.

Elena pushed away from Buffy, putting a few steps between them. Her breathing came in small gasps for a brief period and everyone in the room could tell this was taking a toll on her, "What… What do..? How are you going to find the others now?"

Damon headed for the door, planning to catch the vampire Buffy had told was coming and stopping the other person from finding out anything incriminating. Stefan and Buffy could handle Stefan's girlfriend who was bound to turn hysterical.

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><p>Buffy was driving Elena to the Salvatore boarding house. She thought her niece was handling it all pretty well – considering everything she had been through. They were on their way to the boarding house because Elena wanted to let Stefan, and by association Damon, in on Buffy's secret. Buffy wasn't that thrilled about the whole thing, but had let Elena talk her into it. After the mix of whining, classic puppy eyes and continuous pestering, which she was sure Dawn had instructed Elena to resort to, she had folded like a house of cards in wind. One could only assume she was turning softer with age.<p>

Damon had opened the door when they'd gotten there and lead them in the house to a room where the all four of them were now standing.

"Stefan," Elena's voice was soft as she addressed her boyfriend, "Damon," the latter quirked his eyebrow at the way she made it sound she had almost forgotten he even was there. "Buffy and I have something we need to tell you–"

"I'd say 'need' is a little too strong a word to use in this context," Buffy interjected.

"I'm sure you are wondering how Buffy could do everything she did yesterday," Elena continued, not acknowledging Buffy's remark in any way.

"Oh, not at all," it was Damon's turn to insert himself into the conversation, "I thought it was perfectly normal for a 5'3 blondie to toss a man half bigger than her across a school cafeteria, be able to tell when there's a vampire near, and possess hearing that apparently is better than even ours."

Buffy rolled her eyes at his mocking tone. "Funny," she commented dryly.

"Thank you," he gave her a slight bow, echoing his previous night's actions.

"Damon," Stefan scolded in a way that came across absent-minded. He probably wanted to hear what Elena got to say.

"Buffy," Elena prompted her aunt to tell them. Buffy looked at her, her expression asking if she was serious. She had assumed Elena would tell them and that she was here purely to confirm it, and if needed, play the 'show' part of this show and tell.

When Elena just looked at her she sighed, she might as well tell them, "Fine. I'm the Slayer, one girl and so forth," she waved her hand.

The revelation got surprised reactions from both of the brothers. She could tell they both knew what the Slayer was, or at least the gist of it – thankfully, because she wasn't in the mood to recall the whole spiel for them.

"You can't be serious, _you're_ the Slayer?" Damon exclaimed. He had expected the Slayer to be… Well, a little different. He had heard of them, but hadn't met one until apparently now. They tended to stay on the Hellmouths and those things gave him a fucking migraine.

"Stefan?" Elena tried to get his attention, worried how he was taking the news. His expression was closed off and she couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Buffy looked between Elena and her boyfriend – then at Damon who now had a wolfish look on his face as he stared at her, "You know what, Elena, I'm going to let you two sort this out. Here's the key," she tossed her the key ring containing the key to her rental to the teenager who caught it purely on reflex. "Damon here is taking me home."

Predatory vampires she could handle, but teenage drama? If given the option, she'd rather pass it, thank you very much.

She looked at the older of the brothers for confirmation, "Right, Damon?" there was a hint of '_if you don't'_ in her voice.

"Of course," Damon agreed readily. Whether it was because he didn't want to deal with the drama either or wanted to grill her about the whole Slayer thing, or something else entirely, she didn't know nor did she care right now.

She didn't leave Elena any time to react to the new arrangements she had just made as she exclaimed, "Great!" and added "I'll see you home!" over her shoulder when she was already walking out of the door with Damon following on her heels.

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><p>Notes: It was hard, but I did it. I wrote a complete piece with over 2,100 words. I'd appreciate any and every piece of feedback, so please, leave a review?<p> 


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